Monday Genea-pourri, Week of August 18–24, 2025

My outside activities this week included doing phenology, hiking in Pt Richmond, visiting the history center twice, volunteering at the OFSC, three doctor’s appointments, lunch with two friends from German class, and having a 45th anniversary dinner with hubby. It didn’t seem like I was that busy!

Genealogy

Genealogy Volunteer/Work:
I did two trips to the History Center this week. On Tuesday, I worked on accessions, and on Thursday, I attended the board meeting and took the minutes.

At the Oakland FamilySearch Center, I assisted a researcher in trying to fix a wrongly linked person in the FamilySearch Family Tree. The son was linked incorrectly as his mother’s husband.

Genealogy Meetings: 
I attended the Kinseekers NARA SIG, and I shared about seeking record groups that might have resources about the agencies where my great-aunt worked. Jacqueline and met and we talked about the upcoming retreat. I cannot wait.

Genealogy Writing/Research:
This week, I managed to download a few more records from locked films of Van Zandt County, Texas, at FamilySearch. I will need to extract the info to see if it helps me progress further with the Selman-Hoyt research.

I located some records on the Davey family in Missouri, the Kethley family in Louisiana, and the Tierney family in Carleton County, Ontario. I’m waiting to process these docs until I go on the retreat.

I wrote a draft for the CGS Nugget and sent it to the editor, and I’m working on proposals to submit for the 2026 NGS Family History Conference to be held next May in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Blog Posts Published:

My Children at Play
For the theme of “playtime,” I wrote about my daughters playing in the park and building towns with Legos.

SNGF– Your Ancestral Home Description
I wrote about our house in Pittsburg, California, where we lived from 1955-1963. I was able to locate current photos of it on Zillow.

Webinars/Courses Viewed: 

• From Statutes to Stories by Judy G. Russell (BCG/LFTWebinars)
• Research in Westphalia by Sabine Akabayou (Germanic Genealogy Society)
• Snapshot Interviews: A Conversation with Judy G Russell by Cathie Sherwood (Family History Academy)
• Snapshot Interviews: A Conversation with Tom Jones by Cathie Sherwood (Family History Academy)

Other:
Our hike this week was Pt Richmond to Miller/Knox Park and back. We had great weather and the bay was clear.

My husband and I celebrated 45 years of marriage at Il Fornaio in Walnut Creek. The food was good and we were presented with free glasses of prosecco.

I am suffering from hearing issues in my left ear, and at a doctor’s appointment, he discovered lots of wax. It’s not easy to get rid of, and my nearest appointment isn’t until September. Ugh! It’s like I’m in a tunnel with clogged ears.

I am reading: 

• When Women Invented Television by Jennifer Keishin Armstrong—FINISHED!
• The Great Turkey Walk by Kathleen Karr—FINISHED!
• Stripes, the First Five Years of the GI’s Newspaper ed by Howard Oliver & John Sharnik—FINISHED!
• The Dreamer by Pam Muñoz Ryan—FINISHED!
• Asterix der Gallier by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo
• How Welfare Worked in the Early United States by Gabriel J. Loiacono
• Coming up Short: A Memoir of America by Robert B Reich

Photos for this week. From the hike in Pt. Richmond.

Genealogists are great at documenting our ancestors’ lives, but not so great at documenting our own. I’ll write about what I’ve been doing the past week. This idea came from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing, who started this meme.

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